


Clean Slate

by verucasalt123



Series: Spike Drabbles - September 2016 [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Grief/Mourning, Growing Up, Prompt Fill, Starting Over, UST
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 10:03:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8009251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verucasalt123/pseuds/verucasalt123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spike/Dawn, <i>building a new life together (after Buffy's death and staying dead)</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Clean Slate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KatLeePT](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatLeePT/gifts).



> I marked this as underage due to the characters having feelings for each other when Dawn is underage, but nothing actually happens between her and Spike while she is still under 18.

It hadn’t taken long for Dawn to break completely. Willow and Tara had done the best they could for her, but just living in the same house where she had so many (real or not) memories of her dead mother and sister became unbearable. 

When she and Spike sat down to tell their friends that they were leaving, no one thought it was a fantastic idea. Everyone argued, tried to reason with each other, rattled off the pros and cons of this plan. 

In the end, there was nothing anyone could do. It was well known by everyone in the group that before she died, Buffy had explicitly handed over the care and protection of Dawn to Spike. It was all still so raw; none of them were willing to disregard Buffy’s very specific instruction in this matter. 

Spike assured everyone that Dawn would be safe with him, and there really wasn’t any push-back on that issue. He’d almost died protecting Dawn (and Buffy) on more than one occasion. She wasn’t even sixteen yet, but she’d been through enough that she’d matured very quickly and was capable of making the decision. As much as she loved the whole Scooby gang, she could not stay another day in that house.

Dawn was no longer the Key. No one would come looking for her.

They found a small apartment and covered the windows in blackout shades. Spike couldn’t very well take the Niblet back to his crypt to live. He paid all the bills and made sure she had everything she needed (no one asked how). They didn’t spend a lot of time together at first, with their conflicting schedules, but Spike helped her with homework, taught her how to cook, listened to her talk about normal teenage girl happiness and heartbreak. 

He also watched her grow into an amazing young woman. Certain feelings started to creep into the edges of Spike’s consciousness, but he pushed them away, shamed himself for even thinking…

What he missed was that she was starting to have romantic feelings for him as well. They skated around it all through her last year of high school. 

On the day of her graduation (luckily nothing like the day of Buffy’s graduation), they shared their first kiss. 

And they went back to the life they’d made for themselves over the past couple of years. A nice domestic routine, but now with a little something more. 

Dawn and Spike had both lost so much in their pasts; they gave themselves a pass on the age difference and just grabbed on to this thing that made both of them feel so fulfilled. No one could say they didn’t deserve to be happy.


End file.
